Government not doing enough to prevent left-handed pupils being left behind, campaigners warn

The Government is not doing enough to prevent left-handed pupils from falling behind their peers, MPs and educationalists have warned.

Campaigners claim that thousands of children are still being “penalised” for being left-handed due to a lack of action from ministers, who have failed to take any meaningful action for years.

It is feared that a failure to address early year challenges, such as poor handwriting, leads to much more serious problems down the line - with pupils facing a “downward spiral” of low marks, low self-esteem and reduced career prospects.

It follows multiple studies in recent years showing that left-handed children are more likely to suffer with conditions such as dyslexia.

Meanwhile, a previous study by researchers at Bristol University of 10,000 children found that, on average, left-handed students score lower on IQ tests.

Despite the issue being well publicised, former Conservative Minister Sir Peter Luff said it was “bewildering” that successive governments had failed to address it.

Alongside the pressure group Left ‘n’ Write, a Worcester based handwriting alliance, Sir Peter has called on the Department for Education to conduct greater research into the issue and provide specialist training for teachers.

"This should be so easy to sort. It's of extreme importance and will cost nothing to address - not a penny,” Sir Peter added.

"It takes a few strokes of the pen, a modest change to the teacher training syllabus and you are away.

"It's bizarre kids in our schools are penalised because they happen to be left-handed. It's bewildering successive governments have failed to act on this. It's so easy to do.”

Whilst the Schools Minister Nick Gibb has recently written to the campaigners to allay their concerns, Mark Stewart, a leading specialist, says that ministers have so far failed to grasp the challenges faced by left-handed children.

He pointed out that the DfE does not record the number of children who are left-handed or their educational attainment, despite them making up approximately 10 per cent of the population.

"In many cases there's no active help, there's a lack of teaching training,” he continued.

"The Department for Education cannot speak with authority - it has no numbers on how many children are left-handed, no way of knowing if it has any impact on likely educational attainment.

"I have heard there's a high percentage of the prison population is left-handed. One might think if the prison numbers are disproportionate, why is that the case?

"Early years education where children are struggling, making a mess of handwriting, they think this is a pain, no one knows how to sort it, they get low marks, low self-esteem, does it get into a downward spiral?”

Commenting, a Department for Education spokesman said: "We trust teachers to provide support to children who are struggling for any reason.”

The Ministry of Justice said it does not record how many prisoners are left-handed.